The Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD), formerly part of the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) and for some years renamed Kinetica, is a national shared library cataloguing network, hosted by the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

. It commenced in 1981 in Australia as the ABN, and after a series of rebrandings and added services, has since 2006 been available through Libraries Australia (the successor to the ABN). In mid-2019, Libraries Australia partnered with

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

, and as of June 2020 is set to be co-branded with Trove. ANBD is Australia's largest single bibliographic resource, containing

bibliographic record A bibliographic record is an entry in a bibliographic index (or a library catalog) which represents and describes a specific resource. A bibliographic record contains the data elements necessary to help users identify and retrieve that resource, as ...

s of published and unpublished sources that form part of an Australian collection, as well as catalogue records of items from the US

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

and other institutions. It includes holdings data, name and subject authority records. It supplies records to Libraries Australia in various supported formats, in order to provide enriched data and support copy cataloguing, thus streamlining services for all libraries in Australia. It is a subscription-based service, via Libraries Australia, for

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

s, used for reference,

collection development Library collection development is the process of systematically building the collection of a particular library to meet the information needs of the library users (a service population) in a timely and economical manner using information resources ...

, cataloguing and inter-library loans. It thus also serves as a kind of enhanced

union catalogue A union catalog is a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries. Union catalogs have been created in a range of media, including book format, microform, cards and more recently, networked electronic databases. Pr ...

History

The

(NLA) began investigating the potential for a national shared cataloguing network in the 1970s. The idea behind the network was that, instead of every library in Australia separately cataloguing every item in their collection, an item would be catalogued just once and stored on a single

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases s ...

. Librarians in other libraries could then copy the record, thus bringing about huge savings in efficiency and money. In August 1978, following a feasibility study, the NLA announced a pilot project. The Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) commenced operations on 2 November 1981, with six participating libraries, which all contributed cataloguing records. During those pre-

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

days, library catalogues were on cards or

microfiche Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. F ...

, so the use of the digital dabase was seen as revolutionary. The database was known as the Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD), while the library network was the Australian Bibliographic Network. The ABN may be seen as the forerunner to Libraries Australia. The National Library established an advisory body, the ABN Network Committee (now Libraries Australia Advisory Committee, or LAAC) to advise the Library on the operation and development of the service. Various state library systems joined the network within the next few years, such as State Library Victoria in 1982, and the first ABN conference was held in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in 1983. The ABN system was as a multi-sector network, including university, state, public and special libraries. Development of ABN
/ref> Services to school libraries were provided under a separate national service, the Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS), first developed in 1984 as ASCIS.

National standards

Training for the network, and the subject catalogue of the network underwent a range of changes in the 1980s. The ABN Standards Committee met for the first time on 14 May 1981. The issues dealt with in the first four meetings included: * minimum level of detail in contributed records * allowable and mandatory changes to bibliographic and authority records * priorities for

authority control In information science, authority control is a process that organizes information, for example in library catalogs, by using a single, distinct spelling of a name (heading) or a numeric identifier for each topic. The word ''authority'' in ''au ...

* detailed examination of

AACR2 AACR may refer to: * ''Across a Crowded Room'', an album by Richard Thompson released in 1985 * American Association for Cancer Research, an organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * American Cable and Radio Corporation, a former communic ...

rule interpretations * standards for geographic names * extension of

Library of Congress Subject Headings The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) comprise a thesaurus (in the information science sense, a controlled vocabulary) of subject headings, maintained by the United States Library of Congress, for use in bibliographic records. LC Subject ...

to allow additional 'approved' subject headings * use of

MeSH A mesh is a barrier made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible or ductile materials. A mesh is similar to a web or a net in that it has many attached or woven strands. Types * A plastic mesh may be extruded, oriented, exp ...

and "Participant" subject headings * the subject heading for

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...

* policy on duplicate records * the hierarchy for "bumping" (record replacement) among different sources * standards for a "high level record" that would be immune from bumping * extension of the Input/Edit system to cater for music, maps and

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

s Once standards were established, a range of guidelines and publications ensued

Inter-library loans

In 1990, the ABN created an inter-library lending service.

Rebranding

In 1999, the National Library moved to a new system, called Kinetica, which conformed to the standard international z39.50 protocol, enabling it to interact with other automated library systems.Full text PDF
/ref> The software allowed users to interact with a

graphical interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

for the first time, rather than a text-based one, and by this time there were over 1000 member libraries and almost 30 million items were available on the ANDB. After a two-year project to redevelop Kinetica, the software used for searching and cataloguing was replaced, and a new administration system was created in November 2005. The new service was branded Libraries Australia, consisting of four components: Search, Cataloguing, Administration and Document Delivery. The more

user-friendly Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a soft ...

search facility for ANBD then provided access to over 42 million items held by around 800 libraries around Australia, as well as about 1.2 million images held by PictureAustralia and many international library catalogues. In addition, the Chinese, Korean and Japanese Database (CJK) merged with Libraries Australia, and in the following year, a free search became publicly available.

International cooperation

In 2006, the National Library entered into an agreement with the National Library of New Zealand, allowing inter-library loans between the two countries. In 2007, Libraries Australia signed an agreement with international library cooperative OCLC, which meant that data added to the ANDB was included in

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

, the largest

online public access catalogue The online public access catalog (OPAC), now frequently synonymous with ''library catalog'', is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Online catalogs have largely replaced the analog card catalogs previously u ...

OPAC) in the world.

Trove, and recent changes

In 2008–9, Libraries Australia free and subscription services were separated, and the free public search was replaced by Trove. In 2013, it adopted a new cataloguing standard, RDA

Resource Description and Access Resource Description and Access (RDA) is a standard for descriptive cataloging initially released in June 2010, providing instructions and guidelines on formulating bibliographic data. Intended for use by libraries and other cultural organization ...

. In 2014, it redeveloped the search facility, and the following year, ANBD reached a million RDA records.

Current services and organisation

The ANBD is the largest single bibliographic source in Australia. It contains millions of entries for books, journals and items in formats other than text, such as films,

sound recording Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording ...

s, photographs,

braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille disp ...

and

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

s, music scores,

computer file A computer file is a computer resource for recording data in a computer storage device, primarily identified by its file name. Just as words can be written to paper, so can data be written to a computer file. Files can be shared with and trans ...

s and digital material. It includes catalogue records from Australian and other libraries; Australian records are accompanied by location of the item. , its entries cover 50 million holdings, including those in over 1,200 Australian libraries. Contributing libraries include Apart from the ANBD, Libraries Australia's subscription service also provides access to a number of databases from other major institutions, such as the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

Catalogue,

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university and ...

Research Libraries UK Research Libraries UK (RLUK) (formerly CURL) comprises 32 university libraries, 3 national libraries, and the Wellcome Collection in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its aim is to increase the ability of research libraries to share resources among ...

, Informit database,

Catalogue, National Film and Sound Archive,

, the

Powerhouse Museum The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney, the others being the historic Sydney Observatory at Observatory Hill, and the newer Museums Discovery Centre at Castle Hill. Although often de ...

, Te Puna (the New Zealand National Bibliographic Database),

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...

and the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the f ...

. It also includes the Libraries Australia name and subject authorities added to the ANBD by the National Library and other contributing libraries. From July 2019, Libraries Australia became a partner within Trove Collaborative Services, continuing all services as before and with a rollout of new services. From June 2020, co-branding with Trove will become effective.

Notes

External links

Homepage
{{Authority control National Library of Australia Bibliographic databases and indexes Library-related organizations